enough to coat Lyra's tongue. Caelum sat rigidly in the leather seat beside her, his hands-the hands that had just saved her life-resting palm-up

ns were a special kind of hell; they didn't just injur

pressurized numbing spray, but before she could aim it, Caelum's head snapped toward her. His eyes were no lo

d into her mind, so violen

is still in the wound. If I don't neutralize the pH and debride the tissue, it'll travel to your heart. I'

h a mixture of distrust and a dark, haunting hunger. Slowly, the amber in his eyes recede

cal tweezers to pick out the microscopic shards of silver wire that had fused with his skin. Every time she touched him, a jolt of static electricity leapt between them-the spark of the bond. Bu

sposal bag. "You could have let the failsafe trigger. You c

nk opened, but it wasn't a roar this time. It was a lo

se monitor flashed in her mind-the grainy shot of the killers. And you are the

palm. "I don't pity you, Caelum. I'm t

of pain, touched his lips. Fear is hones

Lyra wasn't just in her own head anymore; she was seeing through his eyes. She saw the Vane Estate three years ago. She saw the fire. She felt the crushing weight o

ic failure of his vocal cords from a scream that lasted six hours-a screa

er eyes were wide, wet with tears she hadn't authorized. "Caelum... th

he predatory intensity was still there, but it was being eclipsed by a focused, lethal curiosity. He reached out

ore resonant. But the silver in that drone was Council-stamped. My enemies aren't just in t

r heart racing. "I didn't know who the end-u

ow, you will unearth them. We aren't going to

icide. Even for you. They have silver-mesh security and nullific

link for her to understand the look in his eyes. It was the look of a

till around her neck. It was charred now, the

her. If you stay with me, you are a target. If you leave m

nds to keep her head on her shoulders. For the first time in her life, the professional

ing vents in the sub-basement use a manual bypass that hasn't been updated since the nineties. If I

you-alphas didn't say thank you-but the weight of his mental pre

es to find the name of the man who

Ye

n. You are the only voice I have left. If

ouncil Headquarters. As the sun began to bleed over the horizon, painting the sky in shades of bruised purple

still watching. But as Lyra checked the charge on her hacking deck, she felt a strange, cold resolve.